How 'Bar Rescue' Star Jon Taffer Helped Changed the way We Watch the NFL

January 9, 2014

Source: Fox Sports

Look, we're all sports fans here. Yet no matter how much you support the team, no matter how many throw-back jerseys you own, and no matter how many miles you drove to attend this year's Match.com Bowl in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, we all need a break from sports sometimes.

Often that break involves TV, and for many of us, our regular TV viewing has come to include SpikeTV's smash-hit reality show "Bar Rescue."

If you're reading this Q&A you probably know plenty about this truly spectacular television experience, but for those who don't, the concept is simple: Basically, the show's host Jon Taffer (a renowned bar consultant) has just a few days to go into some of America's worst bars and restaurants (we're talking real, real crap holes here) and "rescue" them. Rescue them from themselves, and in all likelihood, rescue them from foreclosure.

Think of the show as "Hell's Kitchen" meets "Scared Straight;" basically, if Taffer can't help these people, no one can. And if they can't be helped, ultimately their businesses - not to mention livelihoods - fail.

Yet while the show strikes a chord with just about everyone who has ever worked in the service industry, what makes it a truly unique viewing experience is Taffer himself.

To break it down as simply as I can, Taffer is like that stern parent that we all despised as a kid, but who we've grown to appreciate as an adult. The dude is a no non-sense, straight to the point kind of guy, and isn't afraid to tell some of the folks he's trying to "help" exactly how he feels about them.

Of course often times "how he feels" involves curse words and threats of bodily harm, yet much like that stern parent, when he makes those threats, he's actually doing it from a place of sincerity. Watch any episode of "Bar Rescue" and two minutes after the owner is trying to get in a fist-fight with Taffer, they find themselves in Taffer's arms, bawling their eyes out and thanking him.

Simply put, there hasn't been a bar or restaurant featured on "Bar Rescue" that hasn't been better because of the tough love Taffer has brought to it.